[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 103 (Tuesday, June 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2057-S2058]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, at the end of last week, President Biden 
published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal touting his economic 
record. It was not exactly new material. The President is well known 
for attempting to put a rosy spin on his economic record. But I still 
have to marvel every time the President claims that he is building the 
economy from the bottom up and the middle out and working to give 
families ``more breathing room'' because if there is one thing that can 
be said about the Biden Presidency, it is that American families have 
lost a lot of their breathing room.
  The inflation crisis the President helped make is costing American 
families $880 this month. Let me just repeat that. The inflation crisis 
the President helped create is costing American families $880 this 
month--$880 for just 1 month. Meanwhile, real wages have declined for 
26 consecutive months under President Biden--26 consecutive months; 2-
plus years.
  So it is no surprise that in a poll last month, 49 percent of 
Americans reported that their personal financial situation is getting 
worse or that in another poll, 61 percent said recent price increases 
had caused financial hardship for them or their household.
  Let's be very clear. This is not a random situation that just 
happened to occur on the President's watch. The President bears direct 
responsibility for this inflation crisis, which was set off in large 
part thanks to the bloated, Big-Government American Rescue Plan 
spending spree the Democrats and President forced through shortly after 
the President came to office.
  You don't have to take my word on that. Here is what one former Obama 
adviser had to say on the subject:

       The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in the early 
     days of the Biden administration will go down in history as 
     an extraordinary policy mistake.

  ``Will go down in history as an extraordinary policy mistake''--that 
from an Obama adviser.
  Another former Obama adviser noted:

       The original sin was an oversized American Rescue Plan.

  Contrary to what he suggested in his op-ed, the President has done 
exactly nothing to bring down inflation since. Indeed, he has continued 
to pursue the same kind of Big-Government, big-spending policies that 
helped land us in this mess in the first place.
  It is frankly staggering to me that the President continues to have 
the audacity to say things like ``[h]ardworking families are reaping 
the rewards'' of his policies. Hard-working families are certainly 
reaping something from the President's policies, but it isn't rewards.
  As I said earlier, the President is well known for trying to put a 
rosy spin on his economic record, and he trots out some of his favorite 
misleading statistics in this op-ed.
  Since he took office, he claims, the economy has created more than 13 
million jobs. That sounds pretty good, right? Until you realize that 
the vast majority of those jobs weren't newly created but are, rather, 
just jobs that were naturally added back after the pandemic. Currently, 
we are just 3.7 million jobs above where we were prepandemic--hardly 
the historic job boom the President portrays.
  The President also mentions that gasoline prices are down from their 
peak in June of 2022, but he neglects to mention that gas prices are 
currently up 50 percent from where they were when he took office.
  Then, of course, the President brings up one of his favorite claims--
that he reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion over the first 2 years of 
his administration.
  Here is how the Washington Post Fact Checker column has described 
that claim: ``highly misleading.'' Highly misleading. The President 
arrives at this highly misleading statistic by comparing his budget 
deficit in fiscal year 2022 to the fiscal year 2020 budget deficit, 
which was unusually large, to put it mildly, as a result of the COVID 
pandemic.
  A much more appropriate comparison would be to compare President 
Biden's actual 2022 budget deficit to what the Congressional Budget 
Office was projecting that deficit would be before the President's 
American Rescue Plan spending spree was enacted. That tells a far 
different story.
  The reality, as the Post points out, is that ``the data shows the 
deficit picture has worsened under Biden.''
  The Washington Post Fact Checker column recently awarded President 
Biden a Bottomless Pinocchio for his deficit reduction claims--a rating 
the column gives for ``false or misleading statements repeated so often 
that they [become] a form of propaganda.''
  I can't close without mentioning the President's staggering claim 
that he, again, ``fought so hard to bring Democrats and Republicans in 
Congress together to compromise on the budget and prevent a 
catastrophic default.'' As I have already highlighted, the President is 
fairly well known for revisionist history, but this statement might 
take the cake.

[[Page S2058]]

  Can the President possibly think that people have already forgotten 
that he spent months refusing to negotiate on a debt ceiling agreement 
and only came to the table at the last minute? Credit to the President 
for eventually recognizing that divided government requires compromise, 
but to suggest that he set out from the outset to forge a compromise 
between Democrats and Republicans is to skate the line between 
revisionist history and outright falsehood.
  After 2 years of painful price hikes at the gas pump and the grocery 
store, I think few Americans would recognize the positive picture the 
President paints in his op-ed. Unfortunately, it is clear from the 
President's column that he plans to continue to pursue policies that 
will further undermine the economic well-being of the American people. 
So much for giving American families more breathing room.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we start the 
vote now.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.